Living with Autism

Introduction

My name is Ares Johnson and I have been diagnosed with level 1 Autism Spectrum Disorder. I am not typically recognized as someone with a disability but it does affect me drastically, and I will be talking about that here. Many people don’t realize how much Autism can affect someone if they can’t physically see that they are Autistic.

How I got diagnosed

I got diagnosed because I was in therapy for my severe depression, and my therapist noticed that I have a lot of autistic traits so she suggested my mother and I to an Autism specialist, where we ran tests on me. It took months to finish the process, as it is a very real thing to be diagnosed with, but eventually I was diagnosed with level one Autism.

What makes me different than other people

I am a very sensitive person in general, I get overwhelmed very easily, I don’t understand a lot of “simple” things, but I do understand a lot of things that other people don’t.

For example, in my everyday life I see everything as shapes. You may just see a dog, but I see triangles and rectangles and diamonds and so on. I will attach picture demonstrations here:

I had always thought this was normal until I started making these type of pictures for fun and my mom told me that she had never seen anything like that. That’s when I truly saw that my Autism makes me different in a bigger way than I had thought.

My Autistic traits

A lot of Autistic individuals have the same traits or symptoms, but they don’t all have the same traits or symptoms. Here is a collection of traits I inhabited from my Autism:

• Hand/Arm flailing
• Squealing when excited
• Bouncing
• Rocking back and forth
• Tapping repeatedly
• Zoning out completely

My physical symptoms

Autism causes a lot of headaches and stomaches, I feel that my Autism causes a lot of my anxiety because certain things tick me off that would tick me off if I didn’t have Autism.

Autism freak-outs:

Part 1:

In this part I’ll be talking about what causes Autism freak-outs, also known as panic attacks or anxiety attacks from and Autistic person.

What can trigger a freak-out:

• Loud noises/too many noises
• Unfamiliar/uncomfortable textures
• Certain strong smells
• Overloaded/overcrowded places/pictures/videos

Usually a full on freak-out is causes by more than one of these triggers. For example, when I have a freak-out it’s usually caused by a crowded place, mixed with lots of different noises.

An example of a triggering situation is a classroom. First of all, you have the teacher talking, then you have the teacher writing on the board with a squeaky marker, you have people writing with pencils, you have people typing on laptops, and you have people unzipping backpacks. Along with this, you have a place that feels crowded, because of the amount of people. This may be very easy for a neurological person but an Autistic person can he highly triggered by this setting.

Part 2:

In this part I will be talking about what it’s like when an Autistic person has a freak-out.

First we will start with a major freak-out, and there are a ton of ways it can go about.

They can

• Run away
• Scream and freak out
• Hide
• Pull their hair
• Scratch themselves
• Hyperventilate

These are only a few examples of what they may do.

Second we will talk about what happens in a minor freak-out, which is really the same amount of terrifying for the individual, just less obvious than the major.

Things they may do while silently freaking out:

• Continuously tap even if told to stop
• Sing a song in their head
• Count objects or shapes in the room
• Zone out
• Think of their favorite color and focus on it

When silently freaking out I usually zone out and think of good things such as my dog, my favorite color, I think of the sky, or a good memory like laying in my bed or hugging my teddy bear.

Autistic Burnout

Autistic burnout is when an Autistic individual has a rough day and is burnt out by the time they get home or even in the middle of the day, it also happens often after freak-outs.

What happens in an Autistic burnout:

• Won’t talk much if at all
• Has barely any energy
• Wants to lay down and sleep
• May be very hungry or thirsty
• Won’t want much interaction

Now I can’t speak for every Autistic person out there, but these are what happen during my burnouts.

Overview

Autism can be a very discrete disability, but still cause many symptoms and issues that may or may not be visible.

An Autistic person can be severely freaking out and seem fine on the outside. Even though they may look like every one else, their minds are drastically different.